Coira served at Kelly, worked at Alamo National

Obituary: At the beginning of America's involvement in World War II, Army Air Corps pilot Louis Coira was sent to Ecuador as part of a group to guard the Panama Canal Zone from possible enemy attacks, and he wound up meeting his future wife.

Published 9:04 pm, Wednesday, October 14, 2009

At the beginning of America's involvement in World War II, Army Air Corps pilot Louis Coira was sent to Ecuador as part of a group to guard the Panama Canal Zone from possible enemy attacks, and he wound up meeting his future wife. They were married for 64 years.

It was one of many stories in a nearly 40-year military career that included time at Randolph and Kelly AFBs and then a retirement in San Antonio.

Coira, a retired major general, died Sunday of complications from leukemia. He was 93.

The son of an immigrant from Como, Italy, he grew up in Pennsylvania and wanted to become a pilot. The night before he was to take a test as part of his application to the U.S. Military Academy, he prayed for success. He performed well and received an appointment.

After graduating from West Point in 1938, he came to San Antonio for flight training at Randolph and received his pilot wings at Kelly, where he served as an instructor for part of 1941.

After Pearl Harbor, Coira commanded a B-17 squadron that was sent to Ecuador to create a base to protect the Panama Canal Zone. At the time, the U.S. had just started to build an airfield on the Santa Elena Peninsula in Ecuador.

"It was a dirt airstrip," said a son, Mark. "He circled and landed first."

At first, the Americans lived in a hotel there. Another foreigner, the Danish consul to Ecuador, had a vacation house and invited the commanding officer to a party at his house.

At that party, Coira met the consul's daughter, Ellen Holst. They married in Ecuador, and she went to Pennsylvania to live with his family until the end of the war.

Coira was reassigned to Kelly in the early 1960s as deputy commander of the Air Force Security Service, and he became commander in 1965. After serving in Japan, he retired in 1971 and moved to Windcrest the next year. True to that community, he participated in its annual Christmas lights festival.

He received a job offer from Alamo National Bank to work as a vice president in charge of military accounts. He worked there until 1979, and spent his time with family, volunteering at his church and going hunting as often as he could.

More Information

Maj. Gen. Louis E. Coira

Born: April 25, 1916, in Bloomsburg, Pan.

Died: Oct. 11, 2009, in San Antonio

Military: Army Air Corps, Air Force 1933-1971

Preceded by: His wife, Ellen, and a grandson, Ted Dinwoodie.

Survived by: A daughter, Christine Dinwoodie of Columbia, Md.; three sons, Peter of Jupiter, Fla., Paul of Windcrest and Mark of San Antonio; and six grandchildren.

Services: Visitation will take place at 6 p.m. today, with a rosary beginning at 6:30 p.m. at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 6680 Crestway. A funeral Mass begins at 11:30 a.m. Friday at St. John Neumann with a burial ceremony following at Holy Cross Mausoleum.

"We always ran into people who knew our dad. They would always tell us, 'Your father was the real deal,'" Mark Coira said.

"He was not the kind of officer who liked pomp and ceremony," added another son, Peter. "He was a down-on-the-ground kind of guy."